This invention generally relates to the field of firearms and is concerned with a means for applying identifying data to a firearm and to any bullets fired therefrom.
Usually, in order to link a bullet with the firearm that fired it, a number of suspect firearms must be test fired, the fired bullets retrieved and the markings made by the bores of the respective firearms on the bullets compared to the markings on the previously fired bullet.
It would greatly facilitate such ballistic identification procedures if a positive identification could be made with only the fired bullet available. Many firearms have identification numbers. The problem presented by the prior art is to find some way to place that identification number on each bullet as it is fired and to insure that this means for applying the identification number cannot be easily tampered with or removed without damaging or rendering unusable the firearm.
Additionally, with unremovable identifying indicia, it will be impossible to obscure the ownership or origin of a particular firearm by removing or altering the identifying indicia.
A system similar to certain embodiments of the present system has been proposed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,942 to Wiczer in which bullets are labeled by placing in a groove in the barrel bore a channeled ring containing a number of die bars which will impart markings to the bullets which pass over them. The die bars are assembled in different combinations according to a preset code which corresponds to the firearm's serial number. Among the problems with such an insert is that it can be removed and its arrangement of die bars rearranged or removed completely and an attempt made to fill in the groove in the barrel.